Politika i demokracija u doba tehnike
Politics and Democracy in the Age of Technology

Summary/Abstract: The question of the essence of the political and of political and politics can be answered in principle in two ways. The first is implied in the original Greek notion of politics as the realisation of common weal of citizens as citizens. The polis is a political community in which citizens realize their practical life, and the practice of politics is based on their own common sense and practical insights. The other answer proceeds from a modern Machiavellian concept of politics as a technique, i.e. the art of government and the keeping of citizens in subjection. The state is an instrument of force and coercion, and the practice of politics is the instrumentalisation and functionalisation of citizens as subjects. Practical knowledge and custom should be promoted as an antithesis to technology and modern scientific rationality, for the former are the only precoditlons for an adequate practice of practical life and politics. The original meaning of real politics and democracy is the optimal participation of citizens in free and rational consultation and decision-making on the life of the community.

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